Add your name to a special version of the Constitution being presented to Dick Cheney as he tries once again to operate outside the law by refusing to follow an executive order:
http://www.democraticmajority.com/cheney
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Twin Evils of the Religious Right
The arrogance, bullying, lies, disinformation, torture, spying, deliberate misleading, cynicism, lack of compassion, power grabbing - this administration has committed so many aggregious offenses - why are sowing hatred and doubt among the most pernicious?
Mao ruled China without a KGB or an SS and he did so by unleashing and harnassing the power of hatred. He encouraged and rewarded the unhappiness, resentment, and insecurity that people inevitably feel and channeled it towards a specific group of people and whipped up the intensity of those feeling to the level of hatred. He glorified hatred and called it patriotism. Whenever Mao felt threatened by one group in society, he would urge another group to seek them out, accuse them of crimes against the party, and publicly humiliate and torture them. Students turned on teachers, workers turned on bosses, party members turned on party leaders. Hatred coupled with terror - allowed Mao to rule without an enforcer group.
Republicans encourage resentment, envy, and fear and annoint religion over science, faith over reason, and hatred over love. They have defined patriotism as hating liberals "a vote for a Democrat is a vote for the terrorists". They have blamed all this nation's problems on the "gay, educated, feminist, liberal elite" and the "illegal aliens". They have turned one half of the country against the other in the effort to demonize and dehumanze progressives.
Besides kindling hatred, the other incredibly destructive activity Republicans have been routinely engaged in is spreading false doubts. They assert that because they have doubts about accepted science for religious (evolution) or business (climate crisis) reasons, their doubt is scientifically valid. And they say it so many times, people begin to wonder if what they thought was accepted science, really is. They encourage people to abandon reason for fear - while most of us believed that Saddam Hussein probably didn't have the ability to cause the infamous "mushroom cloud" because of the reports of the weapons inspectors; nonetheless, those two words were repeated over and over again by people who supposedly had the best intelligence in the world at their fingertips, giving many us a reason to doubt what we thought we knew. They spread doubt by spreading lies with the purpose of destroying a person's character - during the Clinton administration so many claims were made about crimes of which the Clinton's were supposedly guilty, that after a while even Democrats began to believe that where there was that much smoke... there must be some fire... even though there really wasn't.
Any leadership that encourages hatred of one group by another is dangerous and morally bankrupt. However, it's almost impossible to overcome hatred masking as patriotism backed by the power of the president and to dispel doubt once established. To do so requires unmasking it and repeatedly calling attention to its true nature. On the other hand, genuine leadership should emphasize the ties that bind us, and our shared values and should look for ways we can work together for the common good.
Mao ruled China without a KGB or an SS and he did so by unleashing and harnassing the power of hatred. He encouraged and rewarded the unhappiness, resentment, and insecurity that people inevitably feel and channeled it towards a specific group of people and whipped up the intensity of those feeling to the level of hatred. He glorified hatred and called it patriotism. Whenever Mao felt threatened by one group in society, he would urge another group to seek them out, accuse them of crimes against the party, and publicly humiliate and torture them. Students turned on teachers, workers turned on bosses, party members turned on party leaders. Hatred coupled with terror - allowed Mao to rule without an enforcer group.
Republicans encourage resentment, envy, and fear and annoint religion over science, faith over reason, and hatred over love. They have defined patriotism as hating liberals "a vote for a Democrat is a vote for the terrorists". They have blamed all this nation's problems on the "gay, educated, feminist, liberal elite" and the "illegal aliens". They have turned one half of the country against the other in the effort to demonize and dehumanze progressives.
Besides kindling hatred, the other incredibly destructive activity Republicans have been routinely engaged in is spreading false doubts. They assert that because they have doubts about accepted science for religious (evolution) or business (climate crisis) reasons, their doubt is scientifically valid. And they say it so many times, people begin to wonder if what they thought was accepted science, really is. They encourage people to abandon reason for fear - while most of us believed that Saddam Hussein probably didn't have the ability to cause the infamous "mushroom cloud" because of the reports of the weapons inspectors; nonetheless, those two words were repeated over and over again by people who supposedly had the best intelligence in the world at their fingertips, giving many us a reason to doubt what we thought we knew. They spread doubt by spreading lies with the purpose of destroying a person's character - during the Clinton administration so many claims were made about crimes of which the Clinton's were supposedly guilty, that after a while even Democrats began to believe that where there was that much smoke... there must be some fire... even though there really wasn't.
Any leadership that encourages hatred of one group by another is dangerous and morally bankrupt. However, it's almost impossible to overcome hatred masking as patriotism backed by the power of the president and to dispel doubt once established. To do so requires unmasking it and repeatedly calling attention to its true nature. On the other hand, genuine leadership should emphasize the ties that bind us, and our shared values and should look for ways we can work together for the common good.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Republican-Owned Media Picks Democratic Candidate
Having watched the two Democratic debates, I am appalled at the differences in time allotted the so-called first tier candidates vs the second tier. But even among the first tier candidates, Hillary is getting far more time than Edwards or Obama and then the media proclaims her "commanding presence". And given that the media owns the message and the Republicans own the media, it's fair to say that this is not happening by accident. Even the NY Times has featured first page articles slyly insinuating negative qualities about both Edwards and Obama on a regular basis. The Republicans are clearly salivating to have Hillary as the nominee.
The Republicans did everything they could to bring down the Clinton presidency (read "Blinded by the Right" by David Brock, a former member of the inner circle who also put Thomas on the court). Would it not be ten times worse with Hillary as president? Can't you just imagine her in the middle of growing tensions with China or Iran; suddenly all over the front pages is splattered news of Bill caught with the latest bimbo beauty - with 24/7 coverage on the mainstream media. Investigations would be started regarding Hillary's inappropriate use of the FBI to find out what her husband is up to. The presidency is weakened, mired in scandal once again.
Meanwhile, the Republicans will declare that the Democrats have lost the war in Iraq because the president has been too distracted by her personal problems.
And while it's true the Republicans will try to bring down any Democratic president, and the war in Iraq is positioned to make it easy; nevertheless, the public is so primed to believe the worst about Hillary and Bill - do we have to make it even easier for the Republicans to destroy their faith in a Democratic president?
You couldn't have imagined 6 years ago that the US would have betrayed all that we have stood for by abandoning Habeus Corpus, sanctioning terror, allowing Katrina, using the Patriot Act to gerrymander 8 new Republican Texas seats in Congress, spying on US citizens, blowing a CIA agent's cover to discredit a prominent war critic, stacking the Supreme Court with right-wing radicals, and politicizing all the departments and agencies within the legislative branch (unfortunately this list is almost endless).
Democrats, who I believe are basically a decent lot, suffer from a lack of imagination about Republicans - we don't want to believe that fellow Americans are capable of such blatant acts of deceit, dishonor, and destruction of our democracy in their pursuit of wealth, idealogy, and power.
But if we don't wake up, it's going to get a lot worse.
The Republicans did everything they could to bring down the Clinton presidency (read "Blinded by the Right" by David Brock, a former member of the inner circle who also put Thomas on the court). Would it not be ten times worse with Hillary as president? Can't you just imagine her in the middle of growing tensions with China or Iran; suddenly all over the front pages is splattered news of Bill caught with the latest bimbo beauty - with 24/7 coverage on the mainstream media. Investigations would be started regarding Hillary's inappropriate use of the FBI to find out what her husband is up to. The presidency is weakened, mired in scandal once again.
Meanwhile, the Republicans will declare that the Democrats have lost the war in Iraq because the president has been too distracted by her personal problems.
And while it's true the Republicans will try to bring down any Democratic president, and the war in Iraq is positioned to make it easy; nevertheless, the public is so primed to believe the worst about Hillary and Bill - do we have to make it even easier for the Republicans to destroy their faith in a Democratic president?
You couldn't have imagined 6 years ago that the US would have betrayed all that we have stood for by abandoning Habeus Corpus, sanctioning terror, allowing Katrina, using the Patriot Act to gerrymander 8 new Republican Texas seats in Congress, spying on US citizens, blowing a CIA agent's cover to discredit a prominent war critic, stacking the Supreme Court with right-wing radicals, and politicizing all the departments and agencies within the legislative branch (unfortunately this list is almost endless).
Democrats, who I believe are basically a decent lot, suffer from a lack of imagination about Republicans - we don't want to believe that fellow Americans are capable of such blatant acts of deceit, dishonor, and destruction of our democracy in their pursuit of wealth, idealogy, and power.
But if we don't wake up, it's going to get a lot worse.
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